Melanie Szydzik

Almost 7,000 taxi drivers who did not sign up to two class actions against Uber by the deadline are asking the court for a cut of a $272 million settlement, with a judge questioning what she “unleashed” when sending out the notice of settlement. 

A judge has criticised the pleadings in class actions against ANZ, Macquarie and Westpac over flexible commission schemes for car dealers, saying they were “inappropriate and unhelpful” in referring to documents in the banking royal commission. 

Banks targeted in long-running class actions over flexible commission schemes for car dealers are resisting the plaintiffs’ bid to amend their pleadings to “get around” the defence that certain claims are time-barred.

Deciding an “unusually difficult” costs application, a judge has declined to award Monsanto all of its costs for defending a class action alleging its Roundup weed killer is carcinogenic, saying the agrochemical giant should have pushed harder for a split trial. 

Plaintiff firm Maurice Blackburn will foot the bill for the unsuccessful class action against Monsanto over weed killer Roundup, but the company’s reluctance to split the trial in two has come back to bite it.

A judge has dismissed a class action alleging Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer is carcinogenic but did not go so far as to say it definitively does not cause cancer, while also dressing down the lawyers for both sides for causing delays in the case.

The judge considering a $272 million settlement in class actions against Uber will appoint a pair of contradictors to advise her on the hundreds of objections lobbed against the agreement.

The funder behind two class actions against Uber, which have settled for $272 million, stands to make a tidy sum if the settlement holds up at a court approval hearing.

On the eve of trial, rideshare giant Uber has agreed to pay $271.8 million to settle a five-year-old class action brought by taxi and hire car drivers in four states over the introduction of UberX.

Defending allegations that its popular weed killer Roundup is carcinogenic, agrochemical giant Monsanto has accused the class action of having its “finger on the scales” when presenting scientific evidence to the court.